


Hold me close, for I'm in fear

by Thereinspiritbutlostatheart



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Comforting Each Other, F/F, Fluff, fears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 15:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6860785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thereinspiritbutlostatheart/pseuds/Thereinspiritbutlostatheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Row, row row your boat gently down th... I said gently!"<br/>Ginny is afraid of water yet she still agrees to go out on it with Luna in a tiny little boat. Not her wisest decision.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold me close, for I'm in fear

**Author's Note:**

> This started with me just wanted to write water related puns. Turns out I didn't get in a single one. It's a real shame, though I think this turned out pretty well a good pun or ten can always improve. Will have to work on that in the future.  
> Hope you like this fic and don't mind the lack of puns. I sincerely apologize. 
> 
> Whale I better get rowing, this shore was a fun sting to write. I'll seal you later! (I tried.)

Earlier

-”Hey Luna wait up!” Ginny said excitedly upon spotting her girlfriend walking towards the castle exit.

Luna turned around a little surprised and smiled when she saw Ginny half running/half falling down the stairs.

-”Where are you headed?” Ginny said now a bit more exhausted from the “descent” down a couple flights of stairs.

-”Oh I’m going to the lake. You see I have this homework on the alignment of the stars.” Luna said with a look flicking over her as if she just realized something really interesting. Perhaps it was about how it is that we form shapes from balls of gas billions of light years apart.

-”Great, mind if I joined you? It feels like we haven’t talked in ages.” Ginny said and looked genuinely happy at spending more time with Luna and depending on who it was that asked she would probably say that it was her favorite activity to just be around Luna. If it was Luna that asked she wouldn’t say that though, because she saw her love for quidditch and Ginny loved her for it.

-”Are you sure you want to go with me?” Luna asked slowly, Ginny usually hated water and was scared of pretty much everything in it (except she would never say that because Gryffindors were brave things, or at least everyone let them believe that).

-”Are you kidding me? I’ll be fine Luna, after all it’s just water.” Ginny said smiling and waving with her hand as to say “No big deal, I got this”. 

Luna sighed, because “it’s just water” was what Ginny once said before joining her for a swim in the lake. That had turned out to be a disaster when Ginny’s foot got caught on same algae and it took Luna half an hour to calm her down enough to get back to shore. Afterwards Ginny made Luna swear to never tell anyone and to forget that it happened, also to remind her to never set foot in that water ever again.

-”Ginny you don’t have to go with me, I completely understand and respect your fear of the water.” Luna said trying to be reassuring and considerate. This didn’t work out, it royally backfired and only fueled Ginny’s stubbornness to prove that she was a woman free of fear.

-”Luna, I’ll have you know I am a very capable individual and can handle myself in tough situations. The prospect of being in a boat on the water does not scare me and even if it did, by doing this i would only work towards overcoming my fear. So thank you very much but I will be fine. You have no reason to worry.” Ginny said and patted Luna on the shoulder as to signal “Sweetie you really should have more faith in me” before abruptly turning and stalking off towards the lake.

Luna knew that this was a bad idea, she also knew that once Ginny Weasley had decided on something little to nothing could change her mind. Maybe she even could get over her fear of water and this would help her. Luna knew as soon as the thought it her that it was very untrue so she simply sighed again and followed Ginny. 

Present time (Approximately 15-20 minutes later)

Pushing off from the shore Ginny immediately regretted her decision to join Luna for a trip around the black lake, by means of boat. It wasn’t the water she was afraid of, no, it was the things it contained that left her quite unsettled. The fact that there was a giant squid inhabiting the lake didn’t help ease her anxiety, nor did the fact that if she were to fall out of the boat something might pull her down and drown her. Though there was something about the water that did freak Ginny out a little bit, she couldn’t quite pinpoint it, maybe it was the immense pressure that disturbed her. 

When the boat rocked slightly from a small wave hitting it side Ginny panicked. She grabbed the edges of the boat so hard her hand turned red and her knuckles whitened considerably. The wood gave a slight protest from the assault. Ginny’s thoughts washed over her like a giant tsunami. What if the boat flipped? What if they fell out, what if the squid decided it was time for a midday snack? Oh god they were going to die, this was it. She could see it before her now, the daily prophet headline, “Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood,tragically killed and devoured by giant terrifying squid.”. Ginny’s face was now as pale as her knuckles, she wasn’t ready to die yet, what about quidditch?! How come the air felt so safe yet the water so absolutely mind blowingly dangerously treacherous and mortifying? Luna saw that Ginny was panicking, so she leaned over to grab Ginny’s now slightly twitching hands.

-”Ginny, look at me.” Luna said slowly, voice filled with concern and kindness. The look in her eyes was so sweet that it almost made Ginny forget about their imminent death. Almost.

Ginny was now hyperventilating because the thought of the merpeople impaling them on tridents and having an underwater barbeque was even more disturbing than the prospect of being eaten by an enormous lake monster. Because they were more humanlike, that was practically murder, well not murder if they were to drown first and how would you even have an underwater barbeque? But the merpeople probably had really sharp teeth, what if there were sharks here? Maybe they would eat them instead or just maybe there would be a fight for their corpses among the lake inhabitants. Duel style. Or maybe they would just eat each other too, maybe everyone would die today. That would be terrible, for everyone, except the last one standing, or maybe you would say swimming. 

-”Hey.” Luna tried again, now beginning to worry if this wasn’t such a good idea to bring Ginny for a “relaxing trip out on the lake”.

Ginny still didn’t look up, instead she had her eyes glued on a very interesting rock on the floor of the boat. That rock did have an interesting shape indeed, very… rocky and grey that rock. Much more fascinating than the big open waters surrounding them, oh yeah that rock is truly great. The rock was quite small, only a bit bigger than Ginny’s nail on her thumb. Her thumbs which Luna held with the rest of the hand belonging to that thumb in her own hands. Ginny looked up and realised that Luna looked at her expectantly, she had probably said something or hoped Ginny would say something because she also looked worried.

-”What's wrong?” Ginny half choked out, half squeaked. The noise a shock to herself.

Luna smiled yet still held that look of worry in her eyes as she spoke.

-”You know I really like your face.” Luna said and Ginny wasn’t sure this is what she had expected, was something wrong with her face?

-”Yes? Thank you? I mean… Alright?” Ginny said now considerably confused as to where this conversation was headed.

-”You’d look pretty on land too. We could always go flying instead.” Luna said hopeful and still concerned yet trying to not be overbearing.

Now Ginny started to catch on, she may not be the brightest star in the galaxy but she sure wasn’t no eclipse. Luna was worried about her since she was freaking out, Luna who wanted to just take it easy. Now Ginny felt slightly embarrassed, both over the fact that she had lost it when she said she wouldn’t and because she was being an inconvenience. Yet hold on. Ginny looked up to meet Luna’s kind eyes. Had Luna just offer to go flying, either it was something of her own imagination or Luna was the one who had lost it.

-”Luna. You want to go flying?” Ginny asked jumping to her feet, momentarily forgetting about their position on the lake, in a quite unstable boat.

The boat rocked at the sudden movement and if it wasn’t for Luna also standing up and grabbing Ginny the waist, apparating them to shore before she could fully remember their position they would have both ended up in the water.

Once on the shore again Ginny laid down face first in the grass and just hugged the ground. Luna sat down next to her and waited until her declaration of love for the solid earth was done. It was then that Ginny remembered why she had stood up in the first place.

-”Luna, I know you said that we could go flying instead but I’m not sure that is a good idea.” Ginny said remembering exactly how afraid of heights Luna was. 

Oh how badly it had gone when Ginny had offered to take Luna for a spin on her new broom not taking no for an answer, then apologizing for a good while because it turned out to be one of her more stupid ideas. Luna hadn’t been able to talk for nearly an hour afterwards and when Ginny pulled her in for a hug to stop her from shaking she had started crying. Ginny had told her over and over how incredibly sorry she was. When Luna calmed down a little more she had started to tell Ginny how she was sorry for scaring her so much and that she knew that Ginny wouldn’t have let her fall. It was just that it was so high and there was only so many safety precautions you can take on a broom. Luna reassured Ginny that it wasn’t her fault, she didn’t know and everything was alright now. And Ginny was just so marvelled at the situation because she was the one that should be apologizing for scaring Luna like that.  
It ended with both of them whispering comforting words and hugging each other until Hermione came out and told them that she hated to disturb but they better get inside because Filch was starting to search the area for out of bed students.

-”Alright.” Luna said easily and moved to lie down beside Ginny on the grass.

-”Alright? That’s it? No proving that you aren’t afraid of heights?” Ginny said surprised and winced a little at how her overcoming her fear journey had gone.

-”No.” Luna said and turned to look at Ginny where she laid, grass sticking to her face and hair. She moved to pull out one particularly long strand from Ginny’s hair.

-”I think it’s best to leave the stubbornness to you Gryffindors.” Luna said lovingly and put her hand on Ginny’s cheek.

-”For you are so good at it.” Luna said very sincerely and gave Ginny a kiss on the forehead, leading to a piece of grass sticking to her lips.

-”Fair enough.” Ginny said and plucked the grass from Luna’s lips.

Then Ginny moved to get up since it was getting quite dark and she hadn’t realized how late it was. She brushed off the grass sticking to her and then offered her hand to Luna to help her up. They then walked back to the castle holding each other with grassy hands and coming to the decision that perhaps the Gryffindor common room was as good a place as any to spend time together. For as long as they were together and no one had to go into a state of panic it didn’t really matter where they spent their time. 

First when they entered the Gryffindor common room and sat down on one of the couches did Ginny realize how tired she was. Her shoulders slumped and Luna had to catch her so that she didn’t fall onto the floor.

-”Sorry.” Ginny said mid yawn so it really sound more like “Sawwy” but it was understandable enough.

Luna helped her sit up on the couch again and Ginny asked her to tell a story. So Luna complied and began to tell stories about stars and how magical they truly were until Ginny fell asleep with her head in her lap. Luna sat their combing through Ginny hair with her fingers until she eventually fell asleep too. 

When Hermione walked into the common room she didn’t have the heart to wake them up. So she put a blanket over both of them and a pillow under Ginny’s head before going to her dorm room to get some rest herself.


End file.
